Students collect food for needy

ENCINITAS -- Last year the students at Diegueno Middle School
collected more than 12,000 cans of food for the Encinitas Community
Resource Center and felt good about their efforts. This year they
topped that number by 2,000 cans, collecting 14,024 tins of beans,
soup and milk.

The food will be used for the center's Holiday Basket Program,
which distributes food in December to needy families who live
between Encinitas and Del Mar.

"The students at this school are so generous and the resource
center has 500 families to feed, so the students understand that
the need is out there," said Diegueno teacher and food drive
organizer Erika Pavlovich. "We weren't sure how much people would
be giving this year but they have been extra generous."

The cans were stacked in the school cafeteria, and on Monday the
resource center filled its truck to capacity and still needed to
return Tuesday for the rest.

"They couldn't fit it all in (on Monday), that's how much we
collected," said Katie Palmer, 14, who was commissioner of the food
drive.

On Tuesday, boys with name-brand shorts and girls with
bell-bottom jeans and glittery tops grabbed armfuls of food and
stuffed them into bags for loading onto the truck.

"Sometimes it makes me feel bad to have a lot of nice things,"
said Petra Rackley, 13, of Encinitas. "I know people see our
community as well off, but I know we have people at this school
that have probably gone without a meal or two. Most of us are just
really lucky."

The Encinitas Community Resource Center provides a range of
social services to people in coastal North County: emergency aid,
counseling, employment and legal assistance, a 24-hour emergency
shelter and transitional housing for victims of domestic
violence.

The Holiday Basket Program distributes to qualifying families a
free 10-pound turkey, a box of food, clothing and toy on Dec. 14
and 15. The resource center relies on donations from the community
to administer the 20-year-old program.

"Without the strong support from the community, especially
Diegueno, we wouldn't be able to provide for people during the
holidays," said Chet Hecht, the center's development director.

"Our country is in a time of need and we also have to remember
about hungry people in our own country," said 13-year-old Shelby
Zimmerman of Encinitas. "Not that we shouldn't help other people,
too, but to have people go hungry in America, especially at
Thanksgiving, well, that just shouldn't happen."